Digging for History

Ukrainian higher education has long and deep-rooted traditions. The first educational institutions emerged in Ukraine as early as the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. They played an important role in the country's economical and cultural development. The first Ukrainian educational institution was the Ostrozka School, or Ostrozkiy Greek-Slavic-Latin Collegium, similar to Western European higher education institutions of that time. Established in 1576 in the town of Ostrog the Collegium was the first higher education institution in the Eastern Slavic area. It brought together talented local and foreign personalities: famous intellectuals, men of letters, linguists, and other teaching staff from Slavic countries. The Ostrozka School served its mission for sixty years; among its achievements is the publication of the first complete Bible translated into the Church-Slavonic language (1581). Among its approximate 500 graduates, one may find many writers and other famous personalities. The School closed in 1632.

In 1632 the Bratskiy Collegium in Kyiv opened its doors. This institution, later renamed Kyivo-Mohylansky Collegium, made a considerable contribution to the further development of Ukrainian higher education. In 1694, the government of Imperial Russia officially recognized Kyivo-Mohylansky Collegium as a higher education institution and in 1701 granted it the status of Academy. In the mid-eighteenth century, the number of students enrolled at the Academy reached 1,200 including talented scholars from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and other European countries.